Scientists create “impossible material”—dubbed Upsalite—by accident

Reaction left over the weekend produces a material sought since the 1800s.

Researchers in Uppsala, Sweden, accidentally left a reaction running over the weekend and ended up solving a century-old chemistry problem. Their work has led to the development of new material, dubbed Upsalite, with remarkable water-binding properties. Upsalite promises to find applications in everything from humidity control at home to chemical manufacturing in industry.

Maria Strømme and colleagues at Uppsala University, whose work appears in the journal PLoS one, have modified a procedure dating back to 1908 to make a powdered and dry form of magnesium carbonate (MgCO3). The reaction ingredients are all cheaply available: magnesium oxide (MgO) and carbon dioxide (CO2), dissolved in methanol, a common industrial solvent. The result is pure, dry MgCO3.

Dry in this case means very dry. In the chemical sense, it means void of almost any water molecules at all.

Crystalline forms of dry MgCO3, which lack the structure needed to absorb water, are readily synthesized at high temperatures (over 100°C). As early as 1820, people started to search for lower-temperature routes to make dry MgCO3, but none have successfully yielded pure product until now. This is why Upsalite has been described as an “impossible material.”

The key modification was to increase the pressure of CO2 to three times that of normal atmospheric pressure, rather than simply bubbling the gas through a mixture of MgO in methanol. When one mixture was accidentally allowed to react over a long weekend, researchers came back to find a gel. It turns out the gel was formed because methanol molecules had been trapped within the material. When heated to 70°C, which is above the boiling point of methanol, the gel “solidifies and collapses into a white and coarse powder.” Analysis confirmed that the product was just what chemists had been trying to make for more than 100 years—a dry, powdered form of MgCO3.

Upsalite has impressive properties as a desiccant, absorbing water better than the much more expensive materials that are currently used (called zeolites). Most of the absorbed water is retained when Upsalite is transferred from a humid to a very dry environment. The dry form can be regenerated by heating to 95 °C. By contrast, most zeolites need to be heated to over 150 °C in order to dry them. Not only is Upsalite easy to make and reuse, but it is also non toxic to humans, which makes it suitable for use in humidity control indoors.

The impressive drying property stems from the very large internal surface area of Upsalite. MgCO3 is a common mineral that occurs in a variety of forms, most of which have water bound to their surface and are crystalline. By contrast, Upsalite has no water integrated into its structure and is not crystalline. Instead, it is mesoporous—a structure with pores that are a million times smaller than the width of a human hair—which provides it with a much greater surface area.

The past 20 years have seen a surge of interest in mesoporous materials such as zeolites and carbon nanotubes due to their ability to selectively absorb small molecules, which may enable applications in drug delivery, pollution removal, and the development of new catalysts for chemical reactions. Recognizing these prospects, the researchers have founded a spin-out company called Disruptive Materials to commercialize and apply Upsalite.

Is anyone else concerned about the number of recent stories where suppposedly scientific labs have "accidentally" left mixtures of reagents sitting around unmonitored over a weekend? I thought labs were supposed to have protocols or something for this kind of stuff.

How many of our greatest inventions/discoveries in history were found by accident like this, before "lab protocols" and such were even in existence.

I'd argue "the greater good" needs a few more exploding labs here and there. For the sake of science.

Penicillin, one of the most beneficial and life changing discoveries, was discovered accidentally. So was rubber, plastics, etc. Anyway, chemistry is really quite amazing.

In Norse mythology, Thor (from Old Norse Þórr) is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing, healing and fertility.

Is anyone else concerned about the number of recent stories where suppposedly scientific labs have "accidentally" left mixtures of reagents sitting around unmonitored over a weekend? I thought labs were supposed to have protocols or something for this kind of stuff.

The protocol is typically if it won't explode unattended then it is safe to leave over the weekend. I got to get home to the kids man, tell the boss I'll finish it monday.

lol. My mistake. Thought someone reported everybody(that it was clicked on everyone else's as yellow stands out very much on the dark theme) and was playing mind games or trying to send some sort of message and i was starting to freak out! I've never noticed it before

In Norse mythology, Thor (from Old Norse Þórr) is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing, healing and fertility.

So someone should update the wiki to add "desiccant".

Funny that it includes fertility, as one of the stories have Thor ask Odin why the latter gets all the ladies.

if you are thinking methanol is safe to drink and so about many other things which we don't yet know, you are mostly a danger to yourself and should definitely ask two people before you decide its good to consume!Wish you long life!

Pack iPhones with this stuff, and if it gets wet, dry the phone in the oven.

I suggest you broil your own phone first and let us know how that one turns out. You'll also be able to find out what happens when batteries are placed in extreme heat! Two experiments for the price of one!

Pack iPhones with this stuff, and if it gets wet, dry the phone in the oven.

I suggest you broil your own phone first and let us know how that one turns out. You'll also be able to find out what happens when batteries are placed in extreme heat! Two experiments for the price of one!

You actually can dry a phone in the oven, if you have one that can go as low as 120°F - 130°F

Is anyone else concerned about the number of recent stories where suppposedly scientific labs have "accidentally" left mixtures of reagents sitting around unmonitored over a weekend? I thought labs were supposed to have protocols or something for this kind of stuff.

I'm concerned this discovery, after trying for 100 years, did not occur sooner and took an unattended accident instead of intentional scientific work. What we need then is more accident prone scientists? If a non-scientist had discovered this accidently would it be a scientific discovery or an accident where someone got lucky?

This is exactly why I love science. I almost get a whiff of alchemy when something like this happens. Science is only bested by accidental science.

Well, think about trying to do chemistry before any of the organization and structure were added. It really would seem like a lot of random mixing of things with eons to find useful mixtures. I mean, who would think to get saltpeter from the bottom of a dung pile and mix it with sulphur?

afaik in many cases the university actually patents and get some $$ when Big Corp uses it to make the stuff ( = more money for white coats = win).It would be of course needed to provide a complete exemption of any payments for other university research groups to that university who want to use the process in their research

This is the case in many countries (as the researchers are employed by the university), but Sweden has a special law regarding this. Researchers who also teach at least 20% of their time at a public university are exempt from the rule about employers gaining the patents, and are allowed to patent and profit from their inventions personally. The rule was created to get top researchers to teach part of their time.

Is anyone else concerned about the number of recent stories where suppposedly scientific labs have "accidentally" left mixtures of reagents sitting around unmonitored over a weekend? I thought labs were supposed to have protocols or something for this kind of stuff.

Nope. The materials they were working with wasn't going to destroy the next three counties if it blew.

If they had been working with viral agents, radioactive materials or exotic chemicals with the potential for huge failure, this wouldn't have happened as there are so many checks and system controls both human and mechanical/digital to make sure bad stuff doesn't happen. When bad stuff does happen it is normally because humans override the controls for convienence or stupidity.

Is anyone else concerned about the number of recent stories where suppposedly scientific labs have "accidentally" left mixtures of reagents sitting around unmonitored over a weekend? I thought labs were supposed to have protocols or something for this kind of stuff.

I'm concerned this discovery, after trying for 100 years, did not occur sooner and took an unattended accident instead of intentional scientific work. What we need then is more accident prone scientists? If a non-scientist had discovered this accidently would it be a scientific discovery or an accident where someone got lucky?

Hey. If it weren't for accidental lab discoveries, we wouldn't have LSD, the microwave oven, or Flubber!

Is anyone else concerned about the number of recent stories where suppposedly scientific labs have "accidentally" left mixtures of reagents sitting around unmonitored over a weekend? I thought labs were supposed to have protocols or something for this kind of stuff.

They essentially left a pressurised container with CO2 on the side. It's the lab equivalent to not doing the dishes. It's not like they ran out of appropriate containers for the Ebola virus and started using Tupperware from the cafeteria.The ingredients were all safe: Methanol will make you go blind if you drink it...but is used to wash glassware in labs (and I'd hope people don't just drink stuff they find in the lab), CO2 can asphyxiate you..but also makes your cola fizzy, Magnesium Oxide is used in cement.

I wonder if someone could explain a little better exactly how these desiccants are used in the real world, other then in little "do-no-eat" packets tossed into packaging. Obviously this stuff is way stronger than silica gel, but I'm not quite sure how you'd utilize it in, for example "humidity control indoors".

I wonder if someone could explain a little better exactly how these desiccants are used in the real world, other then in little "do-no-eat" packets tossed into packaging. Obviously this stuff is way stronger than silica gel, but I'm not quite sure how you'd utilize it in, for example "humidity control indoors".

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